Woodworking Talk banner

Hackberry tree milling

3K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  ETWW 
#1 ·
The power company has informed me that it will be cutting down a small hackberry tree on my property and I have requested that they leave me anything over 4" in diameter. I have a 1 3/4 hp band saw that is supposed to be quite good at resawing along with a 3/4" 3 TPI blade. I have mostly worked with pine, cherry, and red oak. I have never worked with hackberry and have heard or seen little of it being worked. Does anyone have any experience with it or suggestions?
 
#3 ·
Great good to know. My mom spoke of a man calling it "iron wood" but I guess she was mistaken. I have some experience resawing rough cut lumber, mostly cherry but haven't done any raw wood. I have seem people painting the ends but dont know much else. Is there anything in particular I need to know... like preventing it from going grey?
 
#4 ·
Yep! paint or wax the ends--it'll check.
"Round here it's a "weed", nobody likes it--most common saying is something like: "a tree looking to die and fall on a fence"
It also has a tendency to have large grubs in the logs--especially if you leave'em outside, and will rot fairly quickly when left on the ground.
I do like to turn it though.
 
#8 ·
I sawed one of two hackberry logs last spring that I got from a blowdown at the edge of my yard. I was looking out the shop door during a thunderstorm and watched the thing fall. Luckily it fell away from the fence.

It sawed very easily and the wood was white, white. I laid the second log in a shady area and will wait for it to spalt. I haven't checked on the sawn lumber since I stickered it so I don't know how much it has grayed. It's in an air-dry stack as I didn't think it was worth the trouble to put it in the kiln. Perhaps I can use it as secondary wood on a furniture project.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top